In writing the past two stories, I have honestly been a bit shocked by just how difficult it has been to produce something that I am moderately happy with. This, truthfully, is just a sign of my own hubris in thinking that writing stories would come naturally.... Therefore, I was really exited to see the Story Lab as an option for this week!
I thought that Dr. Barnes brought up a couple of good points- and some that I have been thinking about a lot over the course of the past month or so. Fictional works hold huge power over their audiences, so I think it is irresponsible act as though this were not the case. I think this is what draws me to stories that have morals. Although I think that this comes with its own problems (imposing one set of morals on situation in which those might not apply), I think that at least thinking about the morality of a story is important.
I thought that Chimamanda Adichie brought up a phenomenally important point- that of properly representing people in works of literature. One question that I had, however, was just how I (fundamentally, a white, privileged person) should best go about this. She spoke about writing about her own narrative, but if I were to do the same, wouldn't I just be contributing more to the problem. At its heart, I understand that there is mostly a need for more authors of a diverse background. IN my own writing, however, would it be reasonable/OK to try to represent more diverse voices even though I cannot speak from personal experience. I imagine that any attempt would involve A LOT of thorough research. Perhaps it is not my responsibility to write diverse voices in my own stories, but to do everything in my power to make sure that other authors who are able to represent voices different from my own get the chance to be heard. Is it possible to do both?
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